This invention relates to a tolerance adjustment device. It relates particularly to a tolerance adjustment device for use with building panels of the kind in which each panel is a double walled structure formed by two outer side walls and channels which form a peripheral frame. In building panels of this kind the interior of the panel may be filled with a core material, such as foam, to form a laminated structural panel, and adjacent panels are interlocked to form apparently seamless walls, floors, and roofs.
In buildings constructed from building panels of this kind the panels are modular panels of standard dimensions, and the channels which make up the perimeter frames of each building panel have special configurations for permitting two adjacent building panels to be interlocked through adjacent channels along the adjoining edges of the panels. Locking devices coact with the channels to retain the adjoining edges of the panels tightly locked together after the building panels have been assembled in place.
Maintaining required building tolerances at corner connections and butt wall connections can be a problem with modular building panels of this kind since there can be a stack-up of individual panel dimensional variations (even though each individual panel itself is within standard tolerances). This is especially true in long spans where a relatively large number of individual building panels are connected together end to end to form a wall, floor or roof.
Since the channel members which form the peripheral frame are integral and necessary parts of each panel, the builder cannot just saw off part of one building panel (as is the case when the builder is using conventional building materials such as two by four wood framing and plywood or gypsum board surface paneling) if some of the assembled walls, floors, etc., turn out to be too long.
It is a primary object of the present invention to maintain tolerances in the assembly of building panels by a tolerance adjustment device which moves a panel section toward and away from an end of a building panel as required to compensate for tolerance variations in a building wall, floor or roof constructed from an assembly of such modular building panels.